Mochi First Impressions Game Review Mash-Up: Monday, Aug 03, 2009

There are some pretty good games on tap for today: I just did one of these last night, so I am surprised by the overall quality just a few hours later. One game didn’t work properly, but there were no dress up games, no obvious tutorial re-skins or exact copies, and the lowest rating was a C-. That’s a pretty good day.

1. 8bitrocket Featured. This
will be the a single game daily that we feel needs the most attention.
This will not always be the best game of the lot. It might be a good
game that Mochi failed to feature, or it might be an awful game that we
feel needs some TLC and we will offer some if the author is willing to
listen (even if he/she is not, we’ll still give it).

2. Mochi Featured Games: A
selection of the Games Mochi has featured for that particular day.

3. Mochi New Releases: Games I feel Mochi should have featured, but has not yet.

4. Capsule Reviews: Both Mochi
Featured and Mochi New Releases games with a short review and a rating.

Why is this the featured game: Bunni is one of the best all around Flash games I have played … for girls. It is certainly NOT for 14 year old boys, but they might enjoy it too. This cute, girl game contains planting, slave bunnies, adventure, ghosts, and a hell of a lot more. Lovely attention to detail and a “hold your hand” approach to story and game element development will have young girls coming back for more. You can save your game and play on any machine at a later time.

Description: This is an adorable building game based in world of bunnies, cute creatures and ghosts.First Impression: I created a forest, a saw mill, a house, and then some bunnies to act as workers to chop down trees. I’ll be a mogul in no time!Grade: A. Girls will dig this, and so will some dudes (even if they won’t admit it).

Mochi New Releases:

Name: Retro Chain reaction: Description: A very simple looking, retro style chain reaction game.First Impression: This looks a little like an Atari 2600 / Speccy game with the 4 colors and the simple game play. It is simply a click the dot game, but each of the colors (dots) has its own unique reaction and I had some fun playing.Grade: B. It was not featured by Mochi, but I think it should be.

Name: Astro Trials: Description: A combination of Lunar Lander AND THE MOST DIFFICULT TO CONTROL GAME EVER! First Impression: This games looks and plays nicely. You need to attempt to control your ship for as long as possible before you eventually and inevitably blow up. It is fun, but difficult.Grade: B+. Every thing is well presented. The music is good, but a little repetitive. I’m not very good at it, but I love the retro sensibilities. A lot of work was put into this one. Mochi didn’t feature it, but I feel they should have.

Description: Balance the scales by placing coconuts with numbers (weights) attached on to the 2 sides, This is a fun Math game for kids.First Impression: This high quality release certainly looks good (the sound is another issue). Kids will enjoy the graphics and hopefully learn a little basic addition.Grade: B+. The music doesn’t loop properly, but everything else is top heap.

New Release Capsule Reviews:

Bush Alzheimer Puzzle: Hmm, I don’t know what to say about this one. Politics aside, it is a semi-clever matching game with some horrifying visuals. Not the design, but of some pictures revealed will scare your children. Grade: C : Not bad for a concentration game.

Dodge Block: A very simple almost classic Game And Watch style dodge contest. You have a block at the bottom that can be moved to amy of 4 positions horizontally. 3 blocks fall from the top, leaving an open space that you must fit into. That’s it. Elegantly simple, but not lasting play value though. Grade: C.

The Marble Game: We’ve all played similar games – shoot marbles from the ground to a sea of them in the sky and try to match 3. This version is very difficult, but is well presented. I dig the tunes a lot. Grade: B.

Logo Phobia: This looks like it would be a decent word game, but it can’t seem to load the data it needs from the external IP address. I will rate it when I can play it properly. Grade: N/A

Sky Madness: The sequel to Airport Madness. You have 5 horizontal flight paths and planes coming across the sky from left and right. Move the planes to one of the flight paths and prevent collisions. I seem to remember an Atari 2600 game that was similar. This is a well made, pretty fun game. Grade: B.

Alphabet Brick: A decent breakout clone with level bricks in the form of words. Nothing special here. No sound, and some de-bug code on the screen. It could be much more. Grade: C-.